Outdoor artificial nighttime light is increasingly recognized as a form of environmental pollution. Excessive nighttime light exposure, whether from indoor or outdoor sources, has been associated with a number of deleterious effects on human health. We performed a population-based cohort study in South Korea to assess the possible association between outdoor nocturnal lighting and insomnia in older adults, as measured by prescriptions for hypnotic drugs.

Methods

This study used data from the 2002–2013 National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC), and a total of 52,027 adults who were age 60 years or older were included in the study. Light data were based on satellite mapping of artificial light. The usage data of two hypnotic drugs, zolpidem (N05CF02) and triazolam (N05CD05), were extracted from the NHIS-NSC records.

Results

Of the 52,027 patients in this cohort, 11,738 (22%) had prescriptions for hypnotic drugs. Increasing outdoor artificial nighttime light exposure (stratified by quartile) was associated with an increased prevalence of hypnotic prescriptions and daily dose intake. Compared with individuals in the lowest quartile 1, the regression coefficients for prescription days and daily defined doses of all hypnotic drugs and certain hypotonic drugs were significantly higher among those living in areas with higher outdoor artificial nighttime light (quartiles 2 through 4).

Conclusions

Outdoor artificial nighttime light exposure was significantly associated with prescription of hypnotic drugs in older adults. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that outdoor artificial nighttime light may cause sleep disturbances.

Global light pollution threatens to disturb numerous wildlife species, but impacts of artificial light will likely vary among species within a community. Thus, artificial lights may change the environment in such a way as to create winners and losers as some species benefit while others do not. Insectivorous bats are nocturnal and a good model to test for differential effects of light pollution on a single community. We used a physiological technique to address this community-level question by measuring plasma ss-hydroxybutyrate (a blood metabolite) concentrations from six species of insectivorous bats in lit and unlit conditions. We also recorded bat calls acoustically to measure activity levels between experimental conditions. Blood metabolite level and acoustic activity data suggest species-specific changes in foraging around lights. In red bats (Lasiurus borealis), ss-hydroxybutyrate levels at lit sites were highest early in the night before decreasing. Acoustic data indicate pronounced peaks in activity at lit sites early in the night. In red bats on dark nights and in the other species in this community, which seem to avoid lights, ss-hydroxybutyrate remained relatively constant. Our results suggest red bats are more willing to expend energy to actively forage around lights despite potential negative impacts, while other, generally rarer species avoid lit areas. Artificial light appears to have a bifurcating effect on bat communities, whereby some species take advantage of concentrated prey resources, yet most do not. Further, this may concentrate light-intolerant species into limited dark refugia, thereby increasing competition for depauperate, phototactic insect communities.

Both natural and artificial light have proximate influences on many aspects of avian biology, physiology and behaviour. To date artificial light at night is mostly considered as being a nuisance disrupting for instance sleep and reproduction of diurnal species. Here, we investigate if lamppost night lighting affects cavity‐nesting bird species inside their breeding cavity. Nest height in secondary cavity‐nesting species is the result of trade‐offs between several selective forces. Predation is the prevailing force leading birds to build thin nests to increase the distance towards the entrance hole. A thin nest may also limit artificial light exposure at night. Yet, a minimum level of daylight inside nesting cavities is necessary for adequate visual communication and/or offspring development. Against this background, we hypothesised that avian nest‐building behaviour varies in response to a change in night lighting. We monitored nest height of urban great tits (Parus major) during six years and found that it varied with artificial light proximity. The birds built thinner nests inside nestboxes of various sizes in response to increasing lamppost night light availability at the nest. In large nestboxes, the nests were also thinner when a lamppost was present in the territory. Whether this relationship between artificial night lighting and nest height reflects a positive or negative effect of urbanisation is discussed in the light of recent experimental studies conducted in rural populations by other research groups.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a widespread phenomenon along coastal areas. Despite increasing evidence of pervasive effects of ALAN on patterns of species distribution and abundance, the potential of this emerging threat to alter ecological processes in marine ecosystems has remained largely unexplored. Here, we show how exposure to white LED lighting, comparable to that experienced along local urbanized coasts, significantly enhanced the impact of grazing gastropods on epilithic microphytobenthos (MPB). ALAN increased both the photosynthetic biomass of MPB and the grazing pressure of gastropods, such that consumers compensated for the positive effect of night lighting on primary producers. Our results indicate that trophic interactions can provide a stabilizing compensatory mechanism against ALAN effects in natural food webs.

Seismic indirect economic loss not only has a major impact on regional economic recovery policies, but also related to the economic assistance at the national level. Due to the Cross-regional economic activities and the difficulty of obtaining data, it's difficult that the indirect economic loss survey covers all economic activities. However, night-time light in an area can reflect the economic activity of the region. This paper focuses on the indirect economic losses caused by the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and evaluated the progress of restoration and reconstruction based on night-time light Images. First, the functional relationship between GDP and night-time light parameters was established based on the pre-earthquake data. Next, the indirect loss of the earthquake was evaluated by the night-time light attenuation in the disaster area after the earthquake. Then, the capacity recovery, which is characterized by the brightness recovery process of the light area, was evaluated. Lastly, the process of light expansion in the disaster area was analyzed to evaluate the economic expansion speed and efficiency.